In a pre-emptive strike against open-borders Democrats who will tell the American people tonight that an illegal-alien crisis is not threatening the border, the White House has posted the briefing that Homeland Security chief Kirstjen Nielsen gave to lawmakers.

President Trump is scheduled to speak at 9 p.m. Democrats will attempt to undermine his message afterward.

But Americans have what they need to know now in a briefing that demonstrates the almost impossible situation at the border: Drugs and criminals are pouring in the country, and most “migrant” asylum claims are phony, which means most of the “migrants” are, simply, illegal aliens.

Message? Time to build a wall.

Drugs and Criminals
The briefing posted at the White House website is a convincing — and shocking — disclosure of the battle that Border Patrol agents are fighting.

The briefing reported a massive increase in drugs seized at the border from fiscal 2017 to 2018: 38 percent for methamphetamine; 22 percent for heroin; and 73 percent for fentanyl, an opioid pain medicine.

Customs and Border Patrol seized 1.7 million pounds of narcotics in fiscal 2018, including 282,000 pounds of cocaine, 248,000 pounds of meth, 6,500 pounds of heroin, and 2,400 pounds of fentanyl.

Beyond the drugs, “DHS agencies are fighting an influx of dangerous people and need the resources to do so.” Border agents collared 17,000 adults with criminal records in 2018 at the southern frontier, as well as 6,000 gang members subsequently removed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Another 3,755 were “known or suspected terrorists prevented from traveling to or entering the U.S.”

So border agents dealt with an average of 47 criminals every single day during fiscal 2018.

The briefing also notes that “criminal organizations gain $2.5 billion in profit from migrant smuggling annually.”

Phony, Sick Migrants
More dangerous than the criminals, however, might be the lie the open-borders Left and its spear-carriers tell about illegals who jump the border, and the teeming mass of vagabonds awaiting entry in Tijuana.

The briefing confirms, as The New American has reported, that most “migrants” come for jobs, and don’t qualify for asylum.

“Border security,” the briefing avers, “is the only effective disincentive to prevent migrants from making the dangerous journey and reducing the influx of vulnerable families.”

“Over the last five years,” the briefing reports, “we have seen a 2,000% increase in asylum claims, yet 72% of migrants report making the journey for economic reasons and therefore would not typically qualify for asylum.”

All those “fraudulent claims delay legitimate claims from being heard — delaying protections for those who need them.”

Some 60,000 unaccompanied children arrived at the border in fiscal 2018, along with 161,000 family units. “More children and families are being apprehended between the ports of entry than ever before. For the first time in history, family units and children comprise the vast majority of apprehensions.”

Nor are the illegal aliens all that healthy, or even safe, on their trip.

Fifty migrants land at medical providers every day, while border agents rescue 4,300 in distress. “Staggering numbers of sick people are crossing the border each day” — some estimates are higher — and “the danger of the journey, crowded conveyances, and flu season have resulted in significant referrals to medical providers.”

Meanwhile, 70 percent of illegal aliens are victims of violence: 31 percent of men and and 17 percent of women are sexually assaulted on the journey north.